North Korea Missile Lapse
Is Break for Pentagon

U.S. Now Has More Time
To Ready Two Key Trials
Of Costly Shield Defense

By

Jonathan Karp

Updated July 6, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

The apparent failure of a North Korean long-range missile gives the Pentagon some breathing room as it prepares two critical tests for a U.S. missile shield that has taken nearly 20 years and $100 billion to develop.

President Bush has made missile defense his top weapons priority, spending between $7.4 billion and $9 billion a year on a range of systems intended to destroy enemy warheads in flight. But two years after Mr. Bush hoped...